RR: Five spots left in recruiting class-aargh

In his radio show yesterday RR addressed recruiting with that comment. Given our severe shortage on defense I was hoping there was a way to add one or two more somehow, but it seems not. I'm at the point of hoping for an offensive de-commitment from someone just so we can bring another defender in.

I'm going to take a guess and say you've never seen him play (Rivals highlights aside) and are only judging him by his 'rating.' That's not fair to the kid. He wants to come here, RR wants him to come here, so accept him as a Wolverine now. You will love him when he's not knee-punching punts all over hell's half acre.

You're right it's not. But hoping someone decommits just is a risky strategy. No recruit is a guarantee. But I agree with your intent. Defense has to be priority #1 and I think we will be happy with how RR closes this class. I'd say it's more than likely we get Christian, Grimes, Murphy, Big Tex, and possibly Furman and I still think Dior ends up here. Just a hunch. Don't quote Charlie Fupa or anything.

Have you seen our punt return game? There are guys that I do not see fitting in this offense (Jackson especially), but the Dileo recruitment makes a lot of sense. If he could not fumble and improve the return game by just a couple of yards, he would be a success.

RR isn't mentioning attrition, but I'm sure another scholly or two will "miraculously" open up if they are truly needed. Also, it seems that every year, each school loses one or two commits on signing day to "snake oil," but gains one or two the same way. RR knows better than we do that a commit isn't a commit until he either enrolls early or signs his LOI. There is the possibility that RR is mentioning this to inspire urgency in the minds of those he is still recruiting, too.

At any rate, I'm sure the class will look a little bit different by signing day. Hopefully, most of the changes are positive.

Technically an ee can choose not to commit and go elsewhere as long as he hasn't signed his loi yet. I am not sure if it has ever happened and don't think a kid would have the cojones to do so but you never know these days. So the only way to be %100 sure is on signing day.

watched that game on Classic the other day. It really looked like coaching staff looked around and said "alright, who the
f$#k can play corner, Terrell, can you play corner? Take Burress, you'll be fine."

I had heard a move to TE before but not DB. I believe the move to TE was based on the fact that he is a big body with not great speed......can't see why we would want someone with that description playing DB.

I had the same thoughts. I can't look for the post because I am on my phone but agree with you 100 % that a move to TE would be better suited unless the coaches know something I don't which is a good bet since I am posting on here and well uh, they are the coaches.

So let's go get Christian, Furman, Beachum, Jefferson, and maybe Mathis. There ya go: Five defensive prospects giving us 13 on defense and 12 on offense, and that's assuming Conelius and either Williamson or J. Robinson don't switch.

I'm just not all that enthusiastic about Mathis. We have a couple better prospects at DB than him, namely Grimes and Knight. I don't really relish the idea of another sub 5'8" db patrolling our defensive backfield......Just sayin'

It's not as dire as you make out. First, 5 defensive commits at this point would give us a heavier class on defense than offense, if we believe the positions listed. Second, there has been wide speculation with 4 players who are listed at offensive positions (DJ Williamson, Jerald Robinson, Steven Hopkins, Co(r)nelius Jones) that they may switch to defense. Hopkins and Williamson are both high school defensive backs, and Steven Hopkins suddenly decided to take up LB this year on his HS team - I wonder why that may be?

I'm not worried about CB depth really at all: We have maybe Warren, Woolfolk, Floyd, Turner, Avery, Witty, Teric Jones, and Talbott already in the fold for next year. Obviously, we'd take Cullen Christian, and if someone like Tony Jefferson decided to ditch UCLA and come, we wouldn't stop him. But that's a LOT of players, especially in 2 classes.

At DT, we have Martin, Banks, Campbell, Sagesse, and Talbott incoming (maybe Beachum?). I'm not counting RVB because it seems entirely possible that we see him at Graham's position next year.

LB and S are our two desperate places. Marvin Robinson seems made for Stevie Brown's position, and I supposed we have Isaiah Bell waiting in the wings for an ILB spot, and possibly Camercn Gordon as well. But we badly need more ILB (why Furman is so important) and super badly need safeties - as we don't have a single reliable one on the roster. As I said - it's entirely possible that Robinson, Williamson, or Jones show up as safeties, but two of those aren't that well thought of.

Do you guys know we have 17 kids from the 2008/09 classes working out on defense. Most have not seen the field yet. 11 of those kids have been working out at LB or DB all fall. Plus, this recruiting class of 5-8 defensive players, perhaps more if there are posistion switches.

That's about 2 dozen players, most will have 3-5 years of eligibility left when August camp opens up for the defense. Is it ideal? Maybe not. But, its not like there is nothing there. There's a lot to work with.

And, the future of the program's success rests with the coaching staff cobbling together an adequate defense out of those kids.

Can someone explain why Michigan is only allowed 25 recruits, when every year, Alabama, Notre Dame, or UNC last year finish with 30 or more commitments. Why are they allowed to have over 25 but we are not?

has a 27 or 28 limit on recruiting classes. I believe alot of conferences are leaning towards having limits if they don't already. Alabama was a disgrace because they signed 32? I believe and then had to weed through their current roster and a few of the incoming recruits to make it to the 85 scholarship limit.

Some of the offensive players we already have will move to defense. I believe James Rogers already has, he just isn't ready to play yet. RR seems to like to recruit a lot of offense and and let them compete for positions. When it becomes apparent to some players they are not going to get the playing time they would like they will move to positions where they can get on the field. Its a process and it takes time. I also think it makes a lot of sense in this day and age and the explosiveness of the spread.

Most kids who are good in high school play offense and would like to continue to play that in college. Giving them a shot at offense and then switching them to defense may allow Rodriguez to pick up some good athletes that just don't know where their best position is.

I think the "only 5 spots left" statment is PR. UM currently has 20 commits and the "official" limit per year is 25.

RR doesn't want to come out and say that UM will take 27 or 28 as it would only give more ammunition to the media types who want to paint him as a mustache-twirling villan who recruits like "those SEC guys...who also have funny accents. CONSPIRACY!"

which corrected my previous thoughts we apparently can count Tate, Bill Will, and a few others that enrolled early last year against the 2009 recruiting class. Which would allow us to sign more than 25 if needed.

A former podcast on WTKA by Sam Webb stated that this rule had changed and we could no longer count ee towards the prior class and his sources were the coaches, but the information in the diary seems pretty black and white since umhero pulled it straight from the NCAA books.

If I could have just 5 players left on the board then I'd take Christian, Grimes, Jefferson, Beachum, and Jones. But I do think we have possibly 3 more slots available and agree with Magnus on a decommit or two. So in that case come on down Richard Ash, Josh Furman, and Kenny Shaw. I know it's a pipe dream but hey we're all allowed to dream.

Do people here not understand that a kids high school position has little bearing on where he will play in college? We have had numerous LBs who came in as RBs, etc. Offensive skill positions can easily convert to defense once they hit college and the best part is they usually have hands made of something other than stone.

That's what I like in particular about versatile players like Jefferson (who is a good HS offensive player), Beachum, and a guy like Furman. They just have good athleticism so get them on campus and then decide where to put them.

People do not understand that point. They will not. I've been repeating that for months. They think that only high school safeties can be college safeties, only high school defensive ends can be college defensive ends, etc.

But I remember an article many years ago in SI (?) describing how Miami (YTM) made its team faster. Apparently one of the things they did was to move fast high school players as necessary to get the most speed on the field. For instance, high school defensive backs were often switched to linebacker.

This dates back to the eighties or nineties when they were winning national titles left and right...

Dileo actually isn't very productive. He doesn't get the ball a whole lot. I mean, he produces fine for the amount of touches he gets, but there aren't many of those. They must have a lot of other talent.

I think we have more than five spots left. This is pure speculation, but I'm guessing we will have some transfers after this season. Hopefully not on the scale we had last year, but I think some attrition is expected at any program.

RR will sign 28 this year. 3 will enroll early (january) which will count against last years total of 22.I gaurantee he gets 28 this year. I'm hoping for christian,grimes,knight,jones,big tex,ash,murphy,ash. People might start singing a new tune when we land Christian,Stills, and Ash.

Isaiah Bell was listed at 209 coming out of high school, and some camp/game reports suggested that he was probably closer to 215 or 220. I agree that Furman can add weight and that he's kind of a beanstalk, but Bell isn't the greatest comparison.

he would be near Taylor Mays, Granted Mays was a 5 star coming out of High School. He is the main reason I was asking. I think it may be a toss up between LB and Safety needs for this class. I think Johnson is our only true Safety commit right now, but I hear he can ball despite the low ranking.